Abscondence
by sea-wren-dip-a-tea
Summary: Abscond; (v) to leave hurriedly and secretly. The contender for Miss Teen America makes an unlikely friend in the form of the delinquent repair boy. He shows her a life of freedom away from the pressures of her mother. But the price to pay for a free life is a dangerous life. All Canon Pairings, RUNAWAYS!AU
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This fanfiction was my nanowrimo project, it is the most I have ever written for anything ever in my short lifetime so it has a special place in my heart. It's a fanfiction with many sources of inspiration, the plot is inspired by Beyonce's song 'Pretty Hurts' and I used the TV show 'Toddlers in Tiaras' as research, the plot for the later half is inspired by the musical 'Bugsy Malone', the setting is inspired by an article I read in a torn magazine in my work canteen on the 'Centro di Financiero' in Venezuela. And ALL the characters come from, of course, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series. Here you go, this is the pilot chapter and I promise not every Authors note will be this long.

Lights. Applause. A pretty smile that doesn't reach her eyes. A meek unexcited hand wave. Congratulatory words that held no truth.

Then the makeup and the dresses are wiped off and packed up, shoved into a van that Piper is shoved into just as carelessly.

That was the life of a beauty pageant queen, and it was all Piper had known. She had been performing since she was four, eleven years later and Piper didn't enjoy a minute of it. She hated parading around in gaudy outfits in front of a panel of gross middle aged idiots. Ultimately, she hated smiling. Piper smiled, and smiled some more. She smiled constantly like her mouth was surely going to snap from the contortion. Piper was more than just a pretty face, of course. Beauty pageant code demanded that she was able to recite dance routines, twirl batons and gently declare that she wanted world peace. Piper hated that too.

Why?

Because her mother was a scary manipulative queen bee. It was all very subtle, never obvious. Piper was sometimes convinced by her charm. Affie hid everything beneath layers of ulterior motives, like a sickly sweet layer cake. The biggest lie she spun was that she wanted what was best for her daughter because she loved so very deeply. Piper had believed that for years, as a little girl she hung on her mother's every word. Piper began to notice that true maternal love was what mothers in movies did, making lunches in brown papers bags and kissing them goodbye on the cheek as they raced off to catch the school bus. Affie would only smack the airs by Piper's cheek to fake kiss her when she won a trophy, not wanting to smudge her lipstick.

Everyday that Piper grew older, it seemed that her mother had more complaints about her, more flaws to wrinkle her nose at. It became harder and harder to quell the hatred blossoming further in her heart. Her mother was always sharing with Piper little snippets of wisdom about beauty and love. "When people see that you are a kind and polite young lady, they are already on the track to associating you with beauty." Affie would say when Piper was being taught etiquette. Piper thought that maybe the reason she was getting acne was because she was so overflowing with spite.

All her movements were heavy and every effort to pretend happiness dragged her into deeper sadness. The more she faked happiness the harder it became to paint a smile. Piper would lie at night or sit at meals thinking how horrible she was to be so full of hatred. She hated her mother, she hated her life, she hated herself. She hated herself for not having the courage to stand up, to do what she wanted. She was a coward, and a self-aware coward is worse than an ignorant coward. She knew that she was acting cowardly but made no moves to amend it.

Piper was sitting in her bedroom when her mother burst through the door with news. Piper's bedroom was more akin to a trophy room/ dressing room/ walk-in closet. Piper was perched on a pouffe brushing her hair slowly, meditatively maintaining eye contact with her own reflection. Her stupid eyes were too cowardly to decide on a colour, as if to choose blue eyes would offend every brown eyed person. Piper mulled over the selfishness of daring to be unhappy when her world was full of extravagance. She was pulled out of her brooding by her mother's entrance.

Affie smiled proudly, joining the picture perfect image in the mirror. She delicately leaned her chin on Piper's head, snatching the comb from Piper with an impeccably manicured claw.

"You are so beautiful, Piper." Affie elongated her "so" in such a way that she sounded like a teenage girl, and ridiculous, she sounded ridiculous too. Piper smiled as if she didn't believe it and returned the compliment. She had learned at a painfully young age that her mother's happiness fed off compliments, and an unhappy Affie was a force to be feared.

Her mother usually took time to announce important news, dramatically building up suspense. She thought that she was causing anticipation but her blathering had the same function as frills on a dress- nothing but decoration. Affie spiralled away, her shirt fanning out beautifully as she pranced across the marble floor. She did an excited little hop and grabbed Piper by the forearm.

"Oh, my! I can't contain myself much longer. We're going to be Miss Teen America!" She exploded into a firework of enthusiasm, fizzing and popping with excitement. Piper remained in her seat.

"I mean this means we will have to work harder than ever before, I've been consulting with a new dietician and dance choreographer. And you'll be needing a better makeup artist and new dresses. Oh my god, we will need so many new dresses!"

Piper stood frozen. Miss Teen America was the biggest underage pageant in a country full of underage pageants. If she did win, and her mother didn't condone losing, Piper would never escape. The winner had a year of touring, a year of appearances and smiling, of opening small time businesses and village halls. She would have to pass back the crown, she would never be free of it. Oh God, Oh God, she couldn't do this. It was too much.

"Piper!" her mother's voice went from excited teenage garble to professional mom at lightning speed. "You can't leave me now, baby. This is our big dream, remember?" Affie's claws pushed tightly into Piper's shoulders, pushing her back into her dressing table stool.

Piper retained her own eye contact. She didn't know who she was looking at in the mirror.

This wasn't her dream. Her throat felt tight. She didn't want to do this. Her breathing became a conscious movement. She couldn't do this. Her ribs felt too tight on her lungs. She didn't know what she wanted to do if she had a choice. Her hands were trembling in her lap.

Piper had never said no to her mother.

She didn't know if she could.

She gazed up into her mother's sapphire eyes.

"This_ is _our dream, isn't it, hunny?"

"Of course it is. I'm so excited." Piper lied.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

High tech sound systems do not make comfortable sleeping cushions, Leo mused. He roused and cracked his knuckles as the truck's engine spluttered to a halt. He hammered on the drivers cab.

"Hurry up, Ernie. It's Miss Teen America, all the ladies are waiting for Leo!"

Ernie snorted into his greying moustache. He had picked Leo up as an apprentice six months ago after watching in admiration as Leo broke into a truckers haunt to steal a sleeping bag and packet of M&Ms, pausing only to fix the broken fuse in a headlight. The kid livened his lonely job up, and in exchange for food and a place to sleep Ernie rarely had to do his job.

Leo fiddled idly with a handful of knuts and bolts- screwing and unscrewing instinctively. He stared up in awe at the humongous building. He had a friend back home who could have ranted for hours about the architecture of the place It was a gigantic auditorium, having stood there for only a decade it had a modern façade, with glass windows covering the entirety and sleek metal revolving doors swung under a huge pink banner. The banner read "Miss Teen America 2014" in glittery cursive. Leo let loose a low impressed whistle.

Ernie had done this gig a thousand times over but he smiled at the young man's wonder. Leo made a step in the direction of the grandiose main entrance. Ernie grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. "Whoa there, bucko. We ain't royalty. They gots a back entrance for the likes of us."

Leo's smile faltered. He was such an idiot, of course a runaway Latino grease-monkey wouldn't be allowed into a gilded foyer. He put an extra bounce into his step to prove that he wasn't bothered.

The grin that was on Leos face as he walked through the storeroom was genuine. He had been lead into a dream world of wires, microphones, switchboards and speakers. Every last piece was the latest technology, there was no second rate rusty crap in there. He felt his eyes weren't big enough and his brain wasn't fast enough to take in what was surrounding him.

Ernie showed him where the speakers were to be stored when they were packed out of the truck. He began to whittle off a list of jobs Leo had to do, Leo wouldn't remember any of it but he would see what needed to be done and do it. Ernie playfully held up a finger in warning when he saw Leo eying up the firework machine that would shoot out sparklers when the winner would be announced. He left Leo with a word of warning.

"And if any of them beauty queens want anything fixed, you better have it done before they have the time to finish their sentence, kapeesh?"

Leo gave an entirely serious salute and dashed off to be alone for hours with his favourite type of person: machines.

Hours or days could have passed for all that Leo noticed, Leo was absorbed in his own world of technology and wires, repairing and advancing. At some time, (late in the evening according to Leo's personal clock- his stomach) Leo felt a presence at his shoulder and launched into an Ernie update.

"So I was shifting out the microphones and noticed the dust would totally clog up the sound so I've cleaned one out then saw how much more convenient it would be to have sound control IN the device. And I swear to God I didn't try to test out the fireworks."

Leo spoke at an 100 mile an hour rate, still facing into the underside of an electric ramp. He turned when he didn't hear Ernies approving grunts but heard an indignant "humph".

"Well, boy, I didn't ask for the update that I don't give a shit about."

The man was wearing a tailored suit, his shirt was nearly as artificially white as his teeth. He had pushed dark Ray-Ban sunglasses back into his coiffed hairdo. His spiteful eyes stared straight through Leo, smug and superior simultaneously. His "mysterious British spy/male model" image was ruined by the pink laminated pass that hung from his neck. Writing under the Miss Teen America logo of a tiara declared him as Cupid, a personal assistant. In Leo's opinion Cupid sounded a bit like a stripper's stage name.

Cupid frowned in disdain at the smudges of oil on Leo's forehead where he had wiped away sweat absentmindedly. Leo gazed at him in absurd belief.

"The lights in dressing room 9 are flickering."

Leo kept staring.

"They need to be fixed." Cupid drawled the sentence out as if speaking to a mentally incompetent child. Leo remembered Ernie's advice and set the cogs in his brain whirring as he tried to remember his manners.

"NOW!" he roared, pointing to the door. Leo ran out, despite having no idea where the dressing rooms were.

Leo used the sound of high pitched voices and strong stench of perfume to guide him, he found the dressing rooms quickly.

Leo paused outside the door with a large '9' in a star on the lavender door. Leo was renowned for his lack of tact but he did now a thing or two about not getting beat up. He knew that it was a bad idea to enter a room when sounds of shrieks and smashing could be heard. He pressed his face up by the door to hear what was going on. Under the exclaims of "I cannot believe you could be so disobedient." Leo could faintly hear sobbing.

The next shout was dangerously close to his ear.

"You better have rethought your opinions by the time I get back."

Leo leapt back from the opening door. He had just witnessed this woman scream bloody murder and he still managed to be mesmerised by her beauty.

She was hot, hella hot. Especially for an older lady. She made forty look like the new twenty. There wasn't a blonde hair out of place. Her teeth were as pearly as her earrings. She wore a printed dress that on anyone else would have looked tacky but she made it work. This woman looked like a goddess.

Leo's mouth was hanging open.

"You better be here to fix these lights, boy. I told Cupid to get them fixed a damn hour ago."

Leo replied with an intelligence remark like "Uhh, yeah." He sidestepped past her into the room.

The immense dressing room was a mess. Clothes were strewn everywhere. A rack of dresses was overturned, lines of hair products and makeup had been knocked over like dominoes, pieces of fluff were spilled out of the cushioned stool that had one leg snapped off as if whacked down on the floor.

The biggest mess was the girl sitting in with her back pressed up against the wall. Her face was puffy from crying, and she was concentrated on her shaking hands, breathing in and counting under her breath. She counted to seven, held for three and would count back down from 7 again. She was absorbed entirely in calming herself. Even with the messy makeup and shaky sobs, this girl was pretty. If her mom was gorgeous then she was beautiful.

Leo was never good at people. He often wished that he'd been born later so that robots were a fully established part of society and he could avoid people completely. Emotions were another thing Leo was bad at, he couldn't figure out how to _fix_ them. If a problem can't be remedied by fiddling with his fingers and some elbow grease, Leo was not your man for job. Leo would also often imagine himself as a girl magnet, but it was just imagining.

Leo was utterly lost when it came to crying girls.

The door shut behind him with a bang. Piper (her name was on the back of her chair) She was trying her best to cry quietly, but failing. She looked up at the sound, startled.

Leo was unsure of what to do. He hadn't expected to walk into the aftermath of an argument. Piper had noticed him by this point, her watery kaleidoscope eyes followed him across the room. She sniffled and wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve. The awkward silence marred by the screech of wood on wood as Leo dragged a heavy chair across the floor.

Stretching his skinny arms to their max and using screwdrivers from his tool-belt, Leo fiddled with the light. His back turned to the beauty queen, a sob rocked through Piper. Leo made a joke before he could even stop himself.

"Hey. It's just a blown fuse. No need to cry, not really."

Leo swivelled around with a bashful grin. Mahogany eyes met rainbow.

Piper snorted. A fantastic, horrendously unattractive sound. Her nose was still running from crying, making her laugh throaty and deep. Piper didn't care, she was puffy eyed and red cheeked, there was no going back to pretending to be pretty in front of this boy. She let her ugliness seep out.

Leo frantically tried to maintain the conversation.

"So, um, your mom seemed pissed. Uh, want to talk about it?"

He stepped down from the chair, the light-bulb fixed and mentally prepared for the princess to through him out of her dressing room for being nosy.

A sigh left Pipers already deflated shoulders.

"I tried to stand up to her. Again."

Leo sprung up. "Oh yeah?"

Piper hesitated.

Leo fiddled his fingers, he opened his mouth to speak but didn't know how to encourage Piper to confide in him. He swirled his fidgety hands to continue. He slid his scrawny backside onto the table. He chanced a kind word.

"Pipes, you can tell me- you know if you'd like to. Its not like there's anybody who would listen to me if I did say anything."

"I don't even know your name and you already have a nickname for me." Piper said in mock offense.

"Leo" he said.

"Right. I'm Piper, clearly." She tapped the chair with her name on it.

The awkward air resettled. They both glanced around the room. Leo wanted to leave but knew that he couldn't- no, that he _shouldn't._

Piper muffled a cry.

"It's just," she stood up, her chair flying backwards. "It's just that she doesn't care about me. She cares about me, the beauty queen who brings her money and glory and gets all the chances she never had growing up. But not _me. _She doesn't give a crap about Piper the Person. I'm beginning to think I don't even have a personality, I'm all the fake stuff I recite on stage to sound good. Do you know how long I've been doing these pageants for?"

She didn't wait for an answer. "Since I was four. Four years old! I've never even been to proper school, only god-awful tutors! I've never known anyone my age outside of these world of **pink."**

Leo swallowed loudly. Channels of tears were rushing down her face.

"Every girl wants to be pretty but I want to tell them to have it. Fucking take it! If this is what being pretty gets me then I don't want it." She paused to shakily wipe her tears.

"but, b-but, pretty is all I have. I am only a pretty face. I can't do anything else. I'm not smart or funny or sporty, I have to be pretty or else I'm nothing."

Piper was babbling hysterically by then.

"It's a lie. I'm not even pretty, and all I have is pretty. If I was pretty why would I need all this? All this makeup and hair-dye and second place trophies."

Leo sat stunned by her rant. He didn't know how a girl could be so full of so many emotions and not explode. Well, he thought to himself, I guess she is exploding now.

"I want to escape all this." She sobbed into her hands.

Leo may be clueless at emotional girls and solving problems but he was an expert in two areas: machines, and running away. Leo had ran away from foster homes, state homes and homeless shelters a grand total of twenty three times. He sometimes joked that he didn't like having to say goodbye. That wasn't the whole truth.

Leo puffed out his chest in a superhero stance.

"Well in that case it's a lucky thing you are in the presence of a mighty master of runaways. But I prefer Leo."

Piper's sculpted eyebrows popped up in surprise as her brain comprehended what Leo had said.

"Are you being serious?"

Leo lounged back in nonchalance. "Of course, what's one more to my list?"

"How do I know this isn't a mean trick?"

Leo frowned in thought. "Er, you don't. Why would I trick you?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Piper was beginning to think that he was joking with her, solutions like that didn't plop into peoples' lap like that.

"Ok. I promise I am being serious. I will help you run away."

Piper tackled Leo in a hug. She was warm and smelled of sugary perfumed shampoo and spicy flowers. The last person to have hugged Leo was his mother. His friends generally avoided hugs, with their histories physical affection was usually uncomfortable. Leo's mother had died half of his lifetime ago. He patted Piper's back like it was a Labradors head. He didn't know what to do.

There was a knock at the door. Piper leaped back at lightning speed. Leo sprung back to 'fixing' the light-bulb. Cupid had returned, he gave an annoyed sigh at Piper's weepy face.

"What are you still doing here?" he demanded, directing his shout at Leo.

"All done now, sir!"

Piper was beginning to slowly tidy up her messy room. She caught Leo's eye as he was leaving and gave the tiniest of smiles. Leo gave a salute from behind Cupid's back as he backed out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Days had passed in a blur of forcing herself to get through all the dance lessons and rehearsals while finding the time to steal away to talk with Leo at any moment she could. The two were complete opposites, different pasts and personalities, but the flow of talking never lulled, together they had a never-ending supply of conversation topics.

Piper paced in her dressing room. Her lurid diamante encrusted dress fanned behind her as she muttered under her breath, the dress probably cost as much a monthly households income. (Piper was never certain where her mothers money came from, but she suspected wealthy businessmen "friends") Her heels clacked on the linoleum, walking in heels was as natural to Piper as breathing. She couldn't remember ever learning to walk in heels, she had all her life.

Leo had passed Piper briefly as she walked to her dance practice, he said he would come for her at 3. He was going to tell her his plan for her grand runaway. But it was 4.28 according to the magenta clock on the wall, Piper had to be onstage at half four to run through the opening ceremony. She nervously ran her acrylic nails through the perfect blond curls that nestled at her dark collarbones. Breaking rules still caused her breath to hitch and her hands to stumble. She couldn't shake off the worrisome thoughts of her mother screaming at her, and of every doll like head turning simultaneously to glare at her for interrupting the rehearsal.

She glanced at the clock again. She was offically late.

Knock.

Piper took a breath and prepared, she opened her door. The corridor was empty. She raised her eyebrows and turned back to her pacing.

Knock, knock, knock.

The sound was more fervent this time. Again, the corridor was deserted.

Piper thought of every horror movie she had ever watched (and she had watched *a lot* of movies, cross country plane journeys are long and boring)

The knocking reverberated through her dressing room again, but this time accompanied by a muffled shout. Piper swivveled her head upwards towards the noise and gasped in surprise.

Leo was sprawled starfish style across the skylight. It was a wonder that his grin didn't break his face in two.

He beckoned for her to join him. From 20 feet in the air. She shook her head in amazement at his stupidity. She twirled her finger round by the temple of her head and mouthed the words "You are crazy" upwards at him.

Leo carefully prised open the window a fraction and a napkin floated down. Written messily in pencil was "fire escape lader at bak of danse studo." She directed a quick thumbs up towards the ceiling to prove she understood.

Kicking off her shoes Piper ran out and down to the door leading outside to a yard holding the garbage bins. Counting the windows she found the aforementioned fire escape ladder and nimbly ascended.

Leo was standing amid the air conditioning fans and generators. He raised his hands like a preacher and screamed "Beauty Queen!" Piper punched him softly in the arm and said "Repair Boy."

Leo crossed his legs as he sat down in the roof, Piper mirrored his movements. "Why are we hanging out on the roof?"

Leo leaned back as if he had been asked the meaning of life and knew the exact answer.

"Well, young grasshopper, nobody ever thinks to check the roof. Nobody ever looks _up_, they're too busy with whats going on down there." He pointed to the ground. From the roof, the silver garbage bins looked like shiny coins.

A memory resurfaced in Piper's mind.

She was seven years old. Thirty similar girls were huddled backstage waiting to go onstage for the costume section of the pageant. Piper was, predictably, a princess. She wore a floozy pink and purple gown that poofed out when she spun around. She had spun around for her mother earlier that day, Affie had clapped her hands in delight and called her 'Mommy's prettiest princess'. This had been back when Piper had hung on and blindly believed every word her mother said. Piper was waiting patiently for her turn like a good little girl. She gazed around with wonder at the tall lights high up in the stage until she spotted a monkey. At least she thought it was a monkey, what else could have such curly hair and and climb up so high? The boy swung with ease from one bar to another. Piper watched in open mouthed amazement. He caught her staring and flashed her a gapped toothed grin. Piper tried to return the smile but it hurt because she had to wear dentures to cover up her own baby teeth that had fallen out.

Piper's pensive expression snapped back to normal and she pointed at Leo. "Ohmygod! We have met before, when we were seven! At the Little Miss Texas quarter finals 2006!"

A crease formed in between Leos eyebrows, "That was the first time i helped out at a show."

"Really?" Piper said.

"Yeah! I bunked off school to go see the big attraction. I was still living with my foster par-" Leo cut himself off before he finished his sentence.

His bright eyes dimmed slightly.

"Foster parents? What happened with them?" Genuine concern emanated from Piper's kaleidoscope eyes.

"They didn't do their job properly." That was a nice way to describe hating a little boy so much that every cupboard in the kitchen was padlocked so that Leo wouldn't cost them a penny more than they received for him.

Piper's concerned expression looked like she wanted to ask more but didn't because of the hard glint in Leo's eye.

"So I hitchhiked on the highway to hell." Leo said with a humourless laugh.

Piper pulled the sheets towards her. She had to admit, it was impressive. He had maps and plans.

Leo rocket launched into an explanation. Producing a pencil from hidden inside his curls, he drew a line on the maps of what route to take. They would leave in the late hours of Thursday night, which with the current day being Tuesday was as soon as possible. They planned to sneak into the walled yard where the company cars and buses were parked, the quickest way to the main road where they could hitch a ride with any of the truckers who slept in their cabins on the roadside.

Piper didn't notice the gaps and flaws of this plan, she didn't care that it was all a big "what if". The slim chance of success didn't matter because it was her first chance. A week ago, Piper didn't know if she was a reckless person. She had simply never been given the opportunity to make her own decisions. She didn't care if this was a crazy reckless decision, it was _her_ decision.

Pipers smile widened and widened as he explained his plan with maps, diagrams and flow charts (granted the latter wasn't necessary but it made his risky basic plan appear more thought out.

The sun was high in the afternoon air, Piper had her back to it. The beams of her smile cast as much warmth on Leo as the beams of sunshine.

Leo continued in his hundred mile an hour speech.

"We'll need to find money somehow of course. That's always the hardest bit."

Piper stopped him. "I have money."

Leo scratched the back of his head. "Er, I wasn't expecting you to actually y'know, contribute."

Leo's olive cheeks grew steadily redder. Money would forever be an awkward subject for him. It was something that was never abundant in his life, and always played a controlling role in decisions. His mom would take on extra shifts at work so they he could get a proper present for Christmas. Any of the homes he had been dropped into would complain about the cost of another mouth to feed. Leo would never stop being shocked at rich peoples' apathy to money.

Leo remembered one time while he was doing errands at a pageant a receipt had fluttered out from a bundle of recycling. The single bill was for $3,000. Leo wasn't good at math but that seemed like enough to live on for nearly half a year. And what had these people spent $3000 on? Hair extensions. One packet of genuine human hair. Leo had been fuming as he lugged the bundles of cardboard down the chute. Even now, years later, he still marvelled at rich people's disregard for money. Here Piper was basically _throwing_ her money at him.

"Look, Leo. If you don't want it, just say so." Piper interrupted his brood. "For the person who's running away I'm not doing much of anything." Her bright eyes were sharp. "The least I can do is give away some of the damned money I've won in these stupid competitions."

Leo smirked. Piper was always getting angry at him. Leo didn't enjoy being screamed at for being late but he knew that Piper only let her emotions show with people she was comfortable around. In backwards fashion, Piper complimented Leo by insulting him.


End file.
